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The Stetson sand volleyball team split a pair of hard-fought 3-2 matches Sunday at the Beach 'N Boards Fest in Cocoa Beach, Fla.

The Hatters defeated Louisiana in Monroe 3-2 before falling to UNF 3-2 but improved their record to 3-1 on the young season.

"We got off to a slow start but the girls played really well yesterday," head coach Tim Loesch said. "We played even better today and pulled out our match against ULM. We lost a really close match to finish up against UNF. If we are going to lose, I'll lose 3-2 with almost all the games going three sets."

Stetson trailed ULM 2-1 before rallying to wins at the no. 4 and no. 5 pairs positions. Erin Robertson and Erika White won at the four-spot, 21-15, 21-13, while Jordann Dierickx and Katie DiGirolamo clinched the match with a 21-13, 21-15 triumph in the no. 5 position.

Between matches Stetson teamed with UNF to plant Sea Oak seedlings in the sand dunes, giving the student-athletes of both teams an opportunity to contribute to the environment.

The Hatters then battled their conference rival in a non-conference match that could have easily gone either way. The no. 2, 3, and 4 pairs all went to a third-set tiebreaker, with UNF claiming wins at three and four by the narrowest of margins.

"For the whole weekend the girls were always fighting for every point and did a great job of playing together," Loesch said. "Our partnerships gelled and we got a lot of good experience playing on the beach with a lot of wind, sun, deep sand, slanted courts, and other things that will serve us well throughout the season. I was really proud of the entire team's effort."

Stetson will travel all the way to New Orleans, La. to face ULM, UAB and Tulane next weekend.